Friday, March 17, 2017

Who was this St. Patrick guy?

He was
born in Britain (not Ireland, SHOCKER!) in the late 300s AD. His name at birth
was Maewyn Succat, but he didn’t care for that so later in life he was known as
Patricius. He had several aliases during his life: Magonus, Succetus, and
Cothirthiacus. But Patrick just seemed to fit best.

Calpurnius,
his father, was a deacon in the early Christian church, but Patrick wasn’t much
of a believer himself. At age 16, he was captured by Irish pirates and enslaved
for 6 years as a shepherd. That was when he chose to convert to Christianity.
During this time of servitude, Patrick learned the Irish language and culture
before making an attempt to escape back to Britain. Patrick wasn’t good at
escaping sadly, because he was captured again. This time by the French. While he
was held in France, he learned about monasticism
before he was sent home to Britain.

He
continued to study Christianity and claimed he had a vision that told him to
bring Christianity to the Irish people, who were mostly pagan and druidic at
the time. When Patrick and his preaching ways were not welcomed back in
Ireland, he had to leave and land on some little islands off the coast. He
began to gain followers there, and he eventually moved to the mainland to
spread Christianity across Ireland for many years. During this time, Patrick
baptized thousands of people (some say 100,000), ordained new church leaders,
converted the sons of kings in the region, and helped in the formation of 300+
churches.

A
popular legend tells of Patrick banishing all the snakes from Ireland, but there
were never actually any snakes there to begin with. Silly, I know. It is also
said that Patrick popularized the shamrock; he used it to teach the concept of
the Holy Trinity. Patrick’s use of the shamrock may have helped him win a great
deal of favor with the Irish.

St.
Paddy’s Day started as a “Feast Day” that always took place on the anniversary
of Patrick’s death, March 17, 461 AD. to
commemorate the life of Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in
Ireland. In the early 18th century, Irish immigrants brought the tradition over
to America, and it was here that it started to become the symbol of Irish
heritage and culture that he is today. As it happens, St. Paddy’s Day is so
popular, it’s thought to be celebrated in more countries than any other
national festival.

Wondering
why wearing green is part of St. Patrick’s Day tradition? Irish soldiers,
during the Irish Rebellion, wore green as they fought off the British in their
trademark red. Until then, the color associated with St. Patrick and Feast Day
was blue. Wearing green became a part of pop culture and is now commonplace to wear
your best greens mid-March.